I Gotta Feeling

The past few days have been pretty relaxed. I know, I know. You're thinking that it seems like the past 12 days have been pretty relaxed. Well, for the most part, you'd be right. And just typing that it is kind of hard for me to believe that I've been here for 12 days already.

Monday marked the first day of classes. Well, the first day of one class. Every other class starts next Monday (Oct. 4th), but for some reason I had a class begin a week before the rest. It wasn't a big deal. The class is called Race and Racism. The University is spread across five campuses stretching from Brighton to Eastbourne. The journey to Eastbourne can take up to an hour if you're not careful. I live in the Paddock Field Halls of Residence on the Falmer campus. My class was at the Grand Parade campus (check out this website for an idea of what that journey could be like). It took probably 25 minutes from bedroom door to classroom door, so not too bad.
There are probably 25 of us including the tutor (professor) in a room not built to hold more than 10 or 15. It was pretty cramped, but we managed. It seems like it will be a good class and it was one I had pre-approved by UNCC that will transfer back in as hours applicable to my major which is incredibly helpful.

After class I did some walking around downtown by myself. Okay, maybe not the greatest idea I've ever had, especially in a new place (I was lost for about 30 seconds), but don't you think it's true that you don't really know your way around somewhere until you get lost and have to find your way out? Brighton is a safe enough town, anyways, that I never felt like I wasn't supposed to be somewhere and there were always scores of people around.
The point is, though, that I managed to find my way back to where I needed to be... my bed, where I had the best nap I've had since I've been on this island.
After waking from my slumber, stretching my limbs and managing to force myself back into the real world, it was time to head out for the night. I think there wound up being 20 of us or so (all USAC students) that went out Monday night. We hit the usual spots (sort of sad we have 'usual spots' already, no?) and it was a great time, as always.  Needless to say, I wasn't looking forward to the 8:30a.m. alarm that came Tuesday morning.

Kind of a pain, really, that you can never seem to slow down time just enough to get as much sleep as you need. Alright, let's be honest here, you probably don't need it, so we'll say as much sleep as you want.

Anyways, up and at 'em it was, ready to take on Brighton's medieval neighbor, the town of Lewes (pronounced Lewis). For a little background info, click here.

Front row: Alysa, Greg, Brogan. Back Row: Camille, Steven, yours truly, Andrew, and Luis all made the trip to Lewes. We also played dress-up, as you can tell. I'm not smiling (shocking, right?) because I was supposed to be the King's (Andrew) bodyguard.

If you actually took the time to read through the Wikipedia article I linked to above (in which case, I'm impressed), then you'll know that one of Lewes' big draws is it's Castle. It was one of our few stops in the small town, as well. Pictures can probably show you what it was like better than I can describe it, so here are a few of my favorite pictures from our trip!

The view of Lewes from a little higher up on the castle.

The spiral staircase of doom. They were so tiny and steep!

That was pretty much our trip to Lewes. We ate lunch in Lewes at a tiny restaurant, and I use that term loosely. There was one incredibly charming older Englishman responsible for the cooking, bar tending and waiting. For being a one man show, he did remarkably well. The menu was mostly traditional English fare and was delicious.
I think the same is true back home, but I'm finding here that the smaller, locally owned restaurants have much more character and often better food, than some of the larger franchised restaurants. All I'm saying is that here I'd never turn down a place called the Hobgoblin (that's the actual name of a pub in Brighton) for a TGIFriday.

We were all pretty tired after the trip to Lewes, so once we got back it was off to Nap City, population: me.

Tuesday was one of the girl's 21st birthdays, so we all went out for that. Wednesday and today have proven themselves to be rather uneventful. We stayed in last night after going to the grocery store. A bunch of us were huddled around Brogan's laptop watching a few episodes of House; he has 5 seasons on his computer. Riveting stuff, I tell you.

I don't want to make this too long, so after I finish this post up, I'm going to start another one showing pictures that I've taken of Brighton and some of my friends here. I have been waiting for the right cord for my camera to come in and it finally did a day or so ago.

And yes, I realize that most of my blog's titles have had at least something to do with the content of said blog. And I always wrap up the blog with a YouTube video of the blog's